Hey guys.
Got one of my 300CD's going to the body shop. I'd like to remove the trim on the car myself, and do all of my own accessory removal first, to save a lot of time, and to prevent them from trying to do the tape off thing, and say they removed it. In short. I just don't trust any body shop, no matter who they are. I've had a few bad experiences, as well as worked in a few body shops. They often pull the wool over customer's eyes, and take short cuts. I want to take off the side moldings, and the lights, and the trim around the top cutters, and around the windshields front and rear, if possible, before sending it.
I once had a body shop tell me they had removed the trim, before painting. I soon found sand marks on the trim around the windows, and over-spay, on even the easiest to remove items. I paid them $6,000.00 dollars to do it right. The paint job was magnificent, with these exceptions, and it was only on a 70 Chevy Nova, which is about the easiest car in the world to remove and reinstall the trim items on. They had no excuse for such a thing and were supposed to be a top notch shop. They had the car for three months, and I thought I would be safe to trust them. This is why I want to do it myself, and bring them the stripped car. All they'll have to do is strip the paint, body work, prep. and paint and send it back.

Bump for the same question.

I'm thinking about prepping my TD for paint over the summer and having the body shop fix the couple of rust spots right and paint it. I'd like to do as much of the prep work as possible, although I'll probably let them sand and stip due to time constraints on my side.

Diesel Giant has a great pictorial on body prep for painting but it starts after the trim removal.

Nick, got a good paint shop to recommend in your area? There's a shop in Rocky Hill that does real nice collision repair (he's done work for my family, business and friends), but squeezing in between his insurance work isn't the easiest and that really is his bread and butter. There's a place in the southend of Hartford that specializes in vintage cars but he did put a new front clip on and repainted my father's Vette a few years ago and there's some bubbling on the hood. It wasn't cheap either.

Yes, there are three here, in my area which do excellent work. First choice for a Mercedes, is "Mauro Motors" auto body shop. They can fix anything, but a broken heart. They're awesome, and since they're also one of the area's largest Mercedes Dealers, they are first and foremost, for body work. I once watched them rebuild a Mercedes that was as bad as the car Princess Diana died in. I was working there at the time, so isaw it go through all stages, from disassembly, to delivery,( which I personally did).I was one of the tow-men working for them, and very often picked up, and delivered cars all over the place. Even as far Atlanta,Ga. They are very well known, very expensive, and top-notch, in every way. Some of their guys worked at Mercedes, assembly plants for years before coming over here, to work for these people. Some worked for AMG also.
Next choice, "A.D.T. Auto Body" here in Hamden ,Ct. This guy Jose who owns and runs it is also very experienced with a lot of cars, for about 25-30 years. He did a great job with my mother Caravan, that's for sure.
Third choice is a place called "Johns Auto Body" which I believe, is in West Haven,Ct. I haven't been to him yet myself, but have seen a lot of the guy's work, and he does all of the work for "Classic Auto Repair", in Branford,Ct. Classic, is about my number one choice for Mecedes repair, aside form body work though. They get into resto jobs, and send John's all of their cars for body work. They do Concourse, type resto work, and if they trust John's, I guess I do, too. Not many others that I ca recommend so Highly in the Ct. areas, I travel often enough. I'm sure there are many others, but I can't name any other's off.
I only mention them, if I know a little about them, so I won't send you to anyone I don't endorse, or wouldn't bring my own cars too. "Mauro", did some small body, and pait work for me, on both my De'Temasso, Pantera, and my 89 Lamborghini, Countach. They both came out great, light work or not. The Pantera, was in charcoal Grey, and the Countach was black. These are both colors in which the car needs to be arrow straight, in order to look good. My current Lambo is Silver w/Black leather though.

To remove the thin center moulding trim use a spackle knife to get behind it and pop it off. The rear section has a few screws and the friction fittings holding it in. If you are going to spend the money for a good paint job, buy new trim strips. The alum trim in the front and rear windshield gaskets ONLY come off when the windshields are removed. Remove the glass as part of your prep....

I am planning on doing this and having the holes welded up. I dont really have any love for the trim. Any advice on how to pull the window trim? I am going to need to pull my rear windows and have some rust repaired in the channels.